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[Since I don’t post when I’m away from home, this week I’m going to post some of the content I wrote while on vacation…]

“Do you think this makes one too many visits?”, my mom asks as we’ve ‘lost’ the teenagers again in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“No,” I reply, “never too many visits. The kids just know their way around. They know what to look for and what to expect. And they’re bigger, so they move faster.”

We’ve been coming here for so many years, truly, their lifetimes. We know what we’ll see in each exhibit, each tank. We’ve long ago determined our favorites and, also, the ones we’ll quickly pass by. We know where to find each other for the long looks, the tanks that even now warrant wonder, our focused attention.

Okay, so maybe the teens are a little underwhelmed after all these visits, but that comes with the age.

No matter how many times I’ve been here, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has earned my respect. Their work in research, conservation, and education is nothing less than awe-inspiring.

Just today, we saw a program we’ve never seen before: a live-narrated video presentation about Great White Sharks. We have seen Great White Sharks live, in their tanks (though they don’t have one now); most people have never seen a Great White except in a movie.

I don’t always love a zoo. There’s something about animals in captivity. But the best zoos, including aquariums, care for both animals and viewers. MBA is The Best Aquarium.

These creatures…we’d never see them otherwise. Fish with vibrant colors. Shore birds swimming in silly circles to churn up whatever delicious bite might have lodged itself in the mud. Baby bat rays that swim up and slide down the glass. Penguins treading water as they watch crazy humans. Octopus tentacles clustered against the tank while it sleeps. Cuttlefish marvelously changing color as they glide.

The beauty and variety of these creatures amazes me. No matter how small they might be, they make me feel small. Together, we are the creations of an infinitely creative God who loves all of us.

Later, I walked along the coast, finally perching on one of the many benches (with a coast this dramatic, there should be this many benches). I soaked in the view, the smells and sounds and sights: the crash of waves on rocks; the delighted squawk of a seagull discovering a fat, dead fish; two sea lions ‘porpoising,’ taking turns gracefully arching their bodies up and out of the water; an otter, bobbing and diving in the surf.

I clicked open my daily Bible reading app to Psalm 145, a favorite.

“Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power” (vv3-4).

While we admire God’s greatness mirrored in the beauty of His creation, my sister lies in a hospital. Again. For fourteen years, she’s been fighting for her life.

“The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation” (v9).

If she could be here, she would be as enthralled by the coast and its creatures as I am. But of course she is also fearfully and wonderfully made, more precious to God than all the rainbow fish. So we pray that God will fulfill His promises:

“The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. The eyes of all look to you in hope” (vv14-15).

We pray and we hope…

[Update: she is out of the hospital but, given her chronic illness, she will never be entirely out of the woods. We pray and we hope…]

My sister has battled a chronic illness for 12.5 years, one that almost killed her at first and kept her in a medically-induced coma for most of the next five months. She has been in and out of countless doctors’ offices and in the hospital too regularly. It’s quite possible that, in any given year, she sees more medical personnel than I have in my entire lifetime, and I’m her Big Sister.

Coco missed most of her oldest son’s first year of life–my parents and other sister helped to care for him while she was comatose–and her second son is more-than-miraculous given he was unintentionally conceived while she was taking drastic drugs. Her sons have never known their mom without a life-defining illness and they, with their dad, have proven incredibly resilient. We wish they hadn’t had to.

Summer before last, my dear friend had emergency eye surgery to repair a torn retina. Surgery should have fixed the problem, but for the last year-and-a-half she has been in and out of the doctor’s office two-five times per month. She has had additional emergency surgeries (one resulted in 472 laser blasts to her eye). She has received second and third opinions. She has had more than one allergic reaction to medications that have resulted in additional doctor’s appointments. Almost weekly she has had to change her activity levels and schedule to accommodate healing, and she has been advised not to travel more than two hours from the nearest retinal surgeon.

She finally switched surgeons for a more aggressive approach and endured an invasive fix-all surgery. Surgery successful, and she had post-op complications. Months later, even more. “Wait…” might be the most difficult word to hear when you thought you’d already done everything necessary.

Our Tween has cyclic vomiting, a migraine variant that, for the most part, bypasses the headache and sets him off hurling. Daily, and regularly, until the school day’s over, at which point he feels (mostly) fine. It sounds like faking, but no kid would intentionally vomit this often or violently. He loves school, and he would much rather be there than running for the toilet.

It came on 2.5 years ago and at first we thought it was an odd flu. When Week Two, punctuated by an entirely-well weekend, repeated the exact pattern, and then the whole thing repeated a few months later, we began looking for other causes.

A year ago–after his worst-ever cycle, three weeks of morning-to-bedtime puke–his neurologist put him on a preventative med that worked: he had an entire migraine-free year! Exactly a year later, it seems to have stopped working.

He is now in his third cycle of this school year. Different from every cycle before this fall, they are less violent; he can go back to sleep; and they last only a few days. He has missed thirteen days scattered throughout eight weeks, which means he’s missed one-quarter of the current school year. He likes his teachers and classes; he has friends; he wants to be there; and migraines have laid him flat.

Because these cycles have been different, we don’t know what to expect. Which means we don’t know what to do and our lives feel on hold.

On Tuesday I talked with my friend after yet-more disappointing news. On Wednesday I talked with my sister as she anticipated difficult doctors’ appointments. On Thursday, when Tween returned to bed rather than school, I heard my own voice say what my loves had said before: “I just want my life back!”

So I have been praying, “peace of Christ,” my new mantra. When in the car, I turn the fan on my face to remind myself that God wants to blow His Spirit, His peace, into my life.

I pray peace for Tween, as we expect anxiety is a likely player in his migraines (though he can’t articulate it). I pray peace for Guy, who so desperately wants to fix things that he gets angry when he can’t. I pray peace for myself as I day-after-day take short days in the office to come home and work nearby my kiddo, who by that time is usually attempting homework sans class instruction. I pray peace as our plans for days and dates and celebrations fall to the wayside of illness.

I pray peace for my sister. I pray peace for my friend. I pray peace for our world…

I want my life back…and yet this, for now, is my life. No bother comparing “old normal” to “new normal,” today is life and this is what I get. Peace of Christ. Peace of Christ, friends.